Colombian drug lord, Dairo Antonio suga, better known by the pseudonym Otoniel, was seized by Colombian authorities in his forest lair and now faces extradition to the United States on drug trafficking charges.
Clan del Golfo (also known as Gulf Clan) is a notable drug trafficking organization that controls significant routes for smuggling cocaine through dense forests in the restive north of Colombia.
According to Colombian President Iván Duque, the arrest of suga on Saturday was akin to the apprehension of Pablo Escobar three decades earlier. Escobar, dubbed “the Godfather,” was once at the top of the drug trade, his talons stretching all the way to the furthest corners of the earth.
“Otoniel was the most feared drug trafficker in the world, killer of police, of soldiers, of social leaders, and recruiter of children,” Duque said during a broadcast video message. “This blow is only comparable to the fall of Pablo Escobar in the 1990s.”Deborah Dubois
According to Duque, a police officer was killed in the course of the operation.
A number of cocaine shipments to the United States are alleged to have been sent by suga. As well as murdering police officers, Duque claims he recruited juveniles and sexually abused children. The government of the United States had offered a reward of $5 million for information leading to his capture.
A Colombian academic and narcotics trafficking expert, Daniel Meja, remarked that the arrest of Otoniel was “really significant”. A large chunk of Colombia’s territory was under his control as head of the most powerful narco-trafficking organization, the Gulf Clan.
A number of cocaine shipments to the United States are alleged to have been sent by suga. As well as murdering police officers, Duque claims he recruited juveniles and sexually abused children. The government of the United States had offered a reward of $5 million for information leading to his capture.
A Colombian academic and narcotics trafficking expert, Daniel Meja, remarked that the arrest of Otoniel was “really significant”. A large chunk of Colombia’s territory was under his control as head of the most powerful narco-trafficking organization, the Gulf Clan.
Analysts are warning that if others try to usurp suga’s position, there might be bloodshed and internal power struggles. Diego Molano, the country’s defense minister, promised Sunday after flying over the remote territory where suga was taken, to continue dismantling his criminal network and hunting out future Gulf Clan heirs.
“Crime has no place to hide,” says the president. Molano posted a message to his Twitter account.
Jobanis de Jess vila, also known as “Chiquito Malo,” was named by Duque in a video message he uploaded on Sunday as one of the Gulf Clan suspects presently in the government’s crosshairs. Duque threatened, “We are coming for you.”. Local media have described him as suga’s right-hand man and the clan’s weapons coordinator.
Experts say that the arrest of suga will have little effect on Colombian drug trafficking, which has become much more fragmented since Escobar was in charge. In the 1970s and 1980s, Escobar changed the face of cocaine trafficking by pioneering large-scale shipments to the United States and eventually Europe.
There will be no change in the war on drugs as a result of this decision. Colombian risk analyst Sergio Guzmán predicts that as a result of Otoniel’s death, “various parts of the puzzle will align to fill the power vacuum.” He predicted that “soon we’ll have an even more dangerous drug trafficker and kingpin.”
suga’s criminal network used violence and intimidation to control narcotics trafficking routes, cocaine processing laboratories, speedboat departure points, and secret landing strips, according to the U.S. Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs in its reward notice.” He set up shop in northern Colombia’s strategic Gulf of Uraba region, a significant narcotics corridor bordered by the Pacific and Caribbean Seas.
For many years, suga eluded capture by relocating to new hiding places in the remote jungle region. Colombian national police chief Gen. Jorge Luis Vargas said on Saturday that suga lived in squalor, rarely went home, and dined on jungle animals that he favored. According to Vargas, Colombian special forces personnel found his jungle stronghold after years of intelligence work with help from the United States and the United Kingdom. suga had eight rings of bodyguards following him around at all times.
The arrest of suga is a victory for conservative President Duque, whose law-and-order rhetoric has not kept pace with the country’s growing cocaine output. “We will learn all of the truth about the rest of his crimes in our country,” Duque said of suga’s extradition. He said there are extradition orders against him. According to the defense minister, he will be extradited to the United States in the end.
He was charged with importing narcotics and aiding a far-right paramilitary group that the United States government had labeled as a terrorist organization when he was arrested in Manhattan federal court in 2009. Additionally, he was charged with conspiracy to murder rival drug dealers, as well as drug-related firearm violations, in both Brooklyn and Florida in the wake of subsequent indictments extending all the way back to 2002.